BIG TALKING POINT... AGAIN
Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads is back with a phenomenal cast. Georgia Humphreys hears more about the reworked monologues from those who star in the show.
All of the characters are drawn with such compassion, the language so delicately chosen, the situations are so heartbreaking and oddly intriguing.
WHILE IT’S been an incredibly difficult few months for Britain, the Covid-19 lockdown has seen the creation of some brilliant TV series.
The latest is a revival of a hit show which first aired in 1988 and revived in 1998 – Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads.
The Leeds-born actor and writer won awards and critical acclaim for the tales – which reveal the innermost thoughts of an individual to audiences – and they’ve since moved to radio and theatre.
Now, 10 of the original monologues have been remade for TV, plus two new pieces which 86-year-old Bennett wrote last year.
The ‘contained’ nature of the stories meant they could be easily filmed following the latest government guidelines on safe working practices during the coronavirus pandemic – and the 12-person line-up is not one to be scoffed at.
Killing Eve fans will be excited to hear it includes Jodie Comer (her episode is called Her Big Chance), while Martin Freeman – star of The Office, The Hobbit and Sherlock – appears in A Chip In The Sugar.
For Liverpudlian Comer, 27, the biggest adjustment filming in this unique format was “the stillness”.
“Usually on set there is a lot of chaos and noise, but as there were less people on set due to social distancing rules, it was very peaceful. This took some getting used to.
“Normally you have to zone yourself out of the noise to focus, but it was so quiet, which threw me off balance to begin with.”
Preparations for the role also had to be done remotely which reminded Londoner Lucian Msamati, 44, of days touring (he has done a lot of theatre work) with “everyone mucking in and getting on with it: no faff, no ego; it’s all about the story and the best way to tell it”. Msamati, who has recently been seen in Sky hit Gangs of London, stars in the Playing Sandwiches episode.
“It was a delight to ‘Zoomcollaborate’ with Jeremy Herrin – director, Jaqueline Durran, our costume designer, and Naomi Donne, our hair and make-up designer, on how best to realise the character,” he follows.
“Other than a dodgy internet connection on one day, it was great.”
There are a number of big female names reworking some of the old monologues, including Lesley Manville (Bed Among The Lentils), Kristin Scott Thomas (The Hand Of God) and Imelda Staunton (A Lady Of Letters).
Dinnerladies’ Maxine Peake takes on Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet, with
Rochenda Sandall – known for a villainous role in Line Of Duty – in The Outside Dog.
Other episodes include Nights In The Garden Of Spain with Tamsin Greig (of Friday Night Dinner fame) while the 2019 pieces – called The Shrine and
An Ordinary Woman – feature Monica Dolan, who won a Bafta for Appropriate Adult, and Happy Valley’s Sarah Lancashire respectively.
Brighton-born Manville probably sums up what to expect from the series best, when she says: “There’s absolutely nothing to compare Alan Bennett’s writing with”.
In her monologue, he deals with her character Susan’s “pain and longing and loneliness, but laces it with such humour and self-deprecation”.
“He understands the human condition,” continues the 64-year-old star, who was nominated for an Oscar for Phantom Thread.
“Susan is a wonderful woman who is full of potential and desperate to have a life of love and validation.
“She’s stuck in an awful marriage to Geoffrey, a vicar, and is isolated and lonely and the only humour she shares is with herself.”
Bennett’s love of the theatre was forged when he was a youngster living in Leeds after the war.
“When I was a boy all the London plays would either come on a preLondon tour or a post-London tour to Leeds Grand often with the original casts,” he previously told The Yorkshire Post.
“I saw Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer, I saw the original production of Waiting For Godot and I saw John Osborne’s only musical The World of Paul Slickey.”
His fondness for Yorkshire still runs deep and has helped him with his comedy writing. “The Yorkshire and
Lancashire way of talking is inherently dramatic. I think it’s a Germanic thing but the point of a sentence is often kept till the end which is ideal for comedy writing,” he set out previously.
Freeman, who’s 48 and was born in Aldershot, had the “intimidating” job of remaking the monologue originally performed by writer Bennett himself. But it was a huge honour to be trusted with it, he adds.
“To be approved of by Alan, who I don’t know, is something I wish I could have told my mum,” he confides. “I knew some of the monologues better than others; I remembered snippets of Alan’s but not too much, I’m glad to say!
“The first thing I said to Jeremy (Herrin, director) was, ‘Well, I’m not going to outdo Alan Bennett, am I?’
“We knew we had to treat it as a new piece of writing, and not be swayed by the folk memory of the original performance.”
Asked what Peake’s first thoughts were when she was asked to play Miss Fozzard (originally portrayed by Patricia Routledge), she admits: “Panic!
“These are classic pieces of writing performed originally by the best in the business. I said ‘Yes’ straight away then spent the next few weeks in a state of high anxiety.
“The magnificent Patricia Routledge is unsurpassable, and also I’m 20 years younger than when Patricia did it so I didn’t know if I could convince people I’m a suitable Miss Fozzard.”
It’s hard to put your finger on it, but there’s just something about Talking Heads that resonates with viewers.
“All of the characters are drawn with such compassion, the language so delicately chosen, the situations are so heartbreaking and oddly intriguing, the peculiar idiosyncrasies of each character so funny and detailed, that audiences get drawn into privacy,” notes Maidstone-born Greig, 53.
“It’s like accidentally overhearing hearts that are too full to keep any more secrets.”
Then there’s the brilliant way audiences get to follow the characters’ train of thought.
Scott Thomas elaborates that the way Bennett writes means “one word can trip into an idea of something else”.
“It’s all brilliantly observed, calibrated and witty,” says the 60-yearold Cornwall-born star, known for films such as Four Weddings And A Funeral and The English Patient.
“He takes no prisoners, but he is never cruel.
“Everybody is boiled down to their absolute core, and he manages to make you understand who a character is and what they are about in the space of three sentences.”
■ Talking Heads returns to BBC on Tuesday June 23.